~ A blog dedicated to honoring and saving the Grand Staircase at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, Oregon.

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Drawings

Hand-coloring refers to any method of manually adding color to a black-and-white photograph, generally either to heighten the realism of the photograph or for artistic purposes. Hand-coloring is also known as hand painting or overpainting.

We couldn’t be happier that someone chose to hand-color this photo of Evensong on the Grand Staircase. The photo (courtesy EOU Pierce Library) was sent as a postcard dated August 4, 1943.

The Grand Staircase at Eastern Oregon University was designed by Oregon architect John Bennes and completed in 1929. Sadly, it has deteriorated over the decades and was closed to public use in 2004.

We believe that the Grand Staircase has great potential as a cultural heritage tourism attraction and, as a result, could help boost the economy of La Grande and eastern Oregon. Even now, deteriorating and no longer opened to the public, it is an architectural treasure worth seeing. Reconstructed it could offer even more.

We started this blog and the accompanyingFacebook page to raise awareness of the Grand Staircase and its architectural significance, post photographs and information of historical interest about the staircase, provide updates on the efforts to save our beloved “college steps” and share the stories and memories of those who love the staircase as much as we do.

To see a pictorial history of the staircase please visit our About page.

If you have any questions or have Grand Staircase memories, stories, or photos you would like to share please contact us at savethegrandstaircase@gmail.com

We have many lovely photos of the Grand Staircase, but we’ve always hoped to find a drawing. This week we did – thanks to the talented Tim Mustoe at The Observer. Tim AKA the “cartooning weatherman” likes to draw and doodle weather and landscapes in the morning for The Observer’s Facebook page. Inlow Hall and the staircase were featured in his Feb. 2 sketch. The forecast was for plenty of sunshine.

Tim Mustoe/The Observer

The Grand Staircase at Eastern Oregon University was designed by Oregon architect John Bennes and completed in 1929. Sadly, it has deteriorated over the decades and was closed to public use in 2004.

We started this blog and the accompanying Facebook page to raise awareness of the Grand Staircase and its architectural significance, post photographs and information of historical interest about the staircase, and share the stories and memories of those who love the staircase as much as we do.

To see a pictorial history of the staircase please visit our About page.

If you have any questions or have Grand Staircase memories, stories, or photos you would like to share please contact us at savethegrandstaircase@gmail.com.